Equal Pay Day: Scholarship on Advocacy and Equity

Today, Friday, April 18, 2008 is Equal Pay Day. The National Women's Law Center is encouraging bloggers to voice their support for the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Lest you think the wage gap doesn't reach attorneys (after all those law firms have lock-step and hour-based associate salaries and partners are just paid according to their client base, right?) study after study has confirmed that gender pay equity continues to be a goal and not a reality in the legal profession as well.

Recently Judge Kaye and Anne Reddy reported that as recently as November 2007, the National Association of Women Lawyers found that, of thirty-five firms willing to report compensation by gender, the average median compensation of a male equity partner was almost $90,000 higher than that of a female equity partner, $27,000 higher than that of a female nonequity partner, and $20,000 higher in the of counsel position. 90% of firms report their top earning member is a man.

I've written on the motherhood wage gap - that is the penalty working mothers pay when they have children that cannot be attributed to reduced time or commitment in the office. National longitudinal studies by the US Department of Labor have documented a statistically significant drop in the wage trajectories of women with children not experienced by fathers.

Blogging for a cause is a growing trend and part of a more general recognition of the power blogging can have for women in particular!